We are being short changed by shops

It is indeed welcome news to the poor of Britain that, based on the Government’s figures, we now have deflation instead of inflation for the first time since the 1960s.

Hurrah, I say, but very cautiously because there are indeed price rises going on, but in a subtly insidious way by keeping the same price but decreasing the amount you pay for.

The breweries started this practise back in the 1980s, when they reduced the pint bottle to 550mls and every schoolboy knows a pint is 568mls.

My lady friend then pointed out things such as a four-pack of soap turning into a three-pack and eventually the size of the soap bars started reducing; bags of crisps have gone from six to five and in some cases four, all for the same price, of course.

Even jars of coffee are down from 100grams to 90grams while remaining the same price – a price rise of 10 per cent for some items.

Again my lady friend noticed after purchasing a 500g pack of mince at the usual price that when she came to half it to keep the remainder for another mince-based meal there was very little left.

On checking the weight she saw not 500g but 350g, equating to a whopping 25 per cent price rise.

Recently some newspapers have started exposing this scandal.

I myself have seen chocolate bars, sweets and all sorts of sundry items reduced in size but not price.

When I was a wee bit younger, for example, if you tried to dunk a rich tea biscuit into your cup you had to nibble quite a portion off to actually dunk it into your cup, but now it fits in quite easily.